The wife rang me at work and asked if I could have the dog (Charlie) for an hour while she nipped for a trim at the hairdressers. Charlie and my employers are very used to each other, so it's not a problem; however, I said I would take him for an hour's walk anyway, and since the wife was dropping him off close to my lunchtime, it would work out well.
I've lived in the West Midlands for just over thirty years. My wife and I lived literally up the road for about three years from where I planned to walk Charlie, and yet neither of us had ever been to this park-come-woods called Backcrofts Park before!
"OMG! Look at this!" I exclaimed to Charlie. I had no idea this was here. Why have I never been here before? It's only about a three- or four-minute drive from my office. Why am I not spending my lunch here instead of sitting at my desk, munching on an egg sandwich?
There was a pool, and it was heaving with birds: what looked like the entire Midlands population of mallards, a squadron of gulls circling overhead or lounging on a little floating raft in the middle, and a few others I couldn’t name without a bird book. Charlie took one look and glanced at me. “I can take ’em, Dad, honest.” I pulled him away.
Charlie and I set off exploring. A circular route around the pool was pretty obvious, though sadly trees and undergrowth mostly obscured it. The park wasn’t exactly busy: six or seven other walkers, three or four of them with dogs. Charlie, as ever, greeted everyone like a long-lost friend, gave them a quick sniff, then lost interest and carried on as if they didn’t exist. He’s very much a “nice to meet you, now go away” sort of dog. I can’t think where he gets it from. Halfway around, we started to pass what could probably be described as an overgrown paddock. "They should get some goats or something in here; they'd soon deal with that lot." I said to Charlie because there's nothing weird about holding conversations with your dog, is there? 🤣
A bit further along, either some smart arse had preempted my idea, or, given Cannock Chase is absolutely loaded with deer, we came across this lot!
Charlie was like, "Whoa, Dad. What the f, is that?" He then froze and lifted one front paw like a gun dog on point, which is quite something for a Coton de Tulear, a fluffy little lap dog bred to sit on the Madagascan nobility's cushions, not stalk deer in Cannock. I think he was as surprised as I was. Munching away happily on the flora was a parcel of deer. (Look it up like I did 😉).
Charlie and I stood mesmerised for a while. It's perfectly feasible they'd jumped in there. As I said, they roam pretty freely around here, although they do stay clear of the main town.
As we were leaving, it started to rain, but fortunately we were only a hop, skip, and a jump from the car, so we didn't get wet.
I'm definitely coming back to eat my egg sandwiches here!
My actual name is Pete. This is why I have the username dickturpin
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